For the Freak
by rese
Summary: [Dedicated to Literary Freak] Jo’s upset but a surprising friend might just be the cure.
1. Chapter 1

**For The Freak**

By rese

Summary: Jo's upset but a surprising friend might just be the cure.

Disclaimer: Louisa Alcott owns Little Women not me. At all.

A/N: This one's dedicated to Literaryfreak who makes me so… indescribable. I heart you like I heart Laurie and Jo. I really felt like I had to make one fic for you. And I mean had to because you always leave such terrific reviews and I think we may be way too alike in sense of humour and taste. You rock, and this one's for you.

P.S. if anyone wants me to do a specific story for them, as in they have a rough plotline or even just a title pass it on and I'll see what I can do (amongst my juggling of 3 major projects and blockade of assessment tasks)

…

Jo gasped as her legs strained to carry her up the stairs at a wild pace. The age-inappropriate echoing thumping went ignored by two sisters in the sitting room below and Jo hit each stair harder with the climb, swiping furiously at her face as the frustrating liquid periodically blurred her vision.

Finally reaching the top of the staircase she threw open the short door and stepped through, blinking against the sudden change in lighting and the still infuriating tears. Jo slammed the wooden door shut and let her head hit against the panels. They didn't have to be so cruel, Jo thought, finally letting the water run its course down her angular cheeks. If she'd just kept her nose in her book… well it was too late to consider what ifs.

A soft cough and scuffle of boots made Jo nearly jump out of her skin as she whirled around to find out what else had sought refuge in the attic.

"Laurie!"

The boy was crossing and uncrossing his legs in obvious discomfort but his black eyes were locked on her wet grey ones, dark, serious, and had Jo the presence of mind to register any emotion other than her present high-strung ones, concerned.

She quickly brushed her sleeve over her face, vainly attempting to hide the fact that she'd been crying. Laurie was silent but he was no fool, he knew she was upset the instant he heard her heavy footfall on the stairs and he had seen her face when she first entered even if she hadn't seen his.

There was a moment of awkwardness where Jo struggled with the choice to approach or retreat, but after the shock of finding her dearest friend in the attic after such a horrendous event was too much to look past.

Laurie still hadn't spoken, not even her name as he was wont to do in any situation but he wordlessly held his arms open. Jo fell forward like a magnet and trampled over her skirts to grab hold of his offer, bending inelegantly over his seated form letting her injured heart out with a few good sobs.

"Oh, Jo." Laurie finally spoke, quietly but sympathetically as he rubbed her back with a large warm hand, the other securely wrapped around her waist. Jo sniffed and pulled back to find her tall friend smiling weakly back in encouragement.

"I'm sorry."

Laurie's brows lifted in surprise at her words, "Whatever for?"

Jo flushed a deep red from ear to ear and she shrugged slightly, wiping her face again before pointing sheepishly at his wet shoulder. Laurie looked down and gave a lopsided grin, so Jo had cried through his shirt! That was hardly anything to be sorry for and if he had any say in the matter, for Laurie knew Jo was to command him in any manner at this stage, he'd rather have it than her be alone and sorrowful.

"Don't be silly, Jo" said Laurie who felt colder each moment her face was gone from his damp shoulder, "Now come sit closer and tell you're boy just what's made you so."

Jo's look was unsure and she wrung her hands over her puffed skirts as she sat by him on the floorboards. He shook his arms a little wider in impatience for her to take the caring demand and Jo at an uncertain length conceded, shuffling close enough for their shoulders to brush.

"Well," she took a shaky breath, feeling still that her reaction was unwanted and abhorrent to her usual behaviour. But at her friend's curious look began…


	2. Chapter 2

Four very unfamiliar young ladies sat around the very familiar sitting room and Jo immediately regretted stepping through the door, even armed as she was with a good book.

"Oh Amy, do introduce us!" said the girl closest to her youngest sister. The request or rather demand as it seemed the brunette was quite resolute to meet Amy's sister, was echoed by the other three whom, Jo determined to be Amy's friends.

"I'm Jo March," said Jo, thrusting her hand out to the brown-haired friend, ignoring all sense of delicate etiquette protocol. Amy flushed from her neck up and bit her lip as her displeased friend lifted a lip at the offered hand and stood up, bowing coldly to Jo. Slightly affronted, Jo tucked her hand into the pocket of her pinafore and smiled uncomfortably at the others whilst Amy quickly stood and named the four.

"These are my friends, Katherine, Alice, Ruby and Charity. Girls, my sister, Josephine." The last introduction wasn't as done as proudly as the two March sisters would usually prefer, but the brunette now known to Jo as Charity seemed to have gathered a sense of disdain since Jo's first blunder.

"Well," Jo gave a little bow from her hips, "I'm sure I'm very pleased to meet you all." And as quick as a dog to its bone, Jo made for the chair in the corner by the fireplace.

The light chatter soon began again and Jo half-listened as her sister exercised her talents at socializing until she became too absorbed in the tale of high seas and dark clouds with equally dark captains to care about any great matter girls of thirteen should talk of.

…

"I see no great problem, Jo." Laurie spoke when Jo paused for another breath to continue in her unusual low tone. He was trying to be encouraging and comforting but was rewarded only a deep stare which promised nothing of the niceness he expected. He could hardly help the guilty wish that she would continue crying on his shoulder where he might hold and comfort quite easily.

"I'm hardly done, Teddy," and Jo, rather dry-eyed now continued.

…

"I can't help but think that all young ladies should stay at home, leave only to marry and be the best wife they can by keeping house properly and caring for the babies, for I'm sure if they're good there should be many."

Charity's statement, spoken wholly as though she knew something of a matter she had no real knowledge of, caught Jo's attention whether intended or not.

"Oh, yes indeed?" Jo asked to which a curt nod was her answer. "Well, I shouldn't say such things or like to hear it from my own sex! Really, what about the authoresses, the governesses, the maids, the factory workers, the actresses!?" cried the girl who bounded up from her seat, book quite forgotten.

"Well, I did not stop to think of the poor but yes, I suppose they must support us in some way." Jo grew a violent shade of red and curled her hand into a fist, ready to fight as she had forgotten yet again that they were girls and _guests_. "Still, I think we should all be better off with husbands and children aplenty, yes girls?"

The fine laughter of the bunch did nothing to stop the surge of anger in Jo and the worried face of Amy.

"Well. I. never." Jo spat out, prepared to beat Charity with a venomous lecture until she saw Amy's warning look. _Jo, please_ Amy mouthed, giving a darting look to her friends who were staring at Jo, waiting to see what crazed thing the odd creature would do.

Jo clamped her mouth shut, letting her lips turn white with the pressure and nodded slowly to herself. Turning she scooped up her book and with her head held high, marched out of the room amongst whispers and one clear voice

"Why your sister is so freakish Amy! How do you ever entertain with her about?"

…

"So you see I waited until the girls had left until I spoke my real feelings. Only, Amy and Meg didn't seem to understand why I couldn't just smile and pretend it was alright." Jo dropped her head, remembering how they called her a freak and looked at her as if she were some zoo animal for royalty.

"Well, I understand Jo." said Laurie and Jo finally looked favourably on him, proud that her boy might be so caring.

"I'm sorry Laurie for all the trouble. It seems rather silly of me looking back now. Oh, see I was only really very upset about the slander on my sex!" Jo added eagerly, desperate not to be seen as some weak, effortlessly effected _girl_.

Laurie chuckled slightly, knowing full well that Jo didn't take well to slights on her nature or character. Shuffling closer he put his arm about her in a perfectly chummy way so that Jo didn't mind and even smiled at him, entirely making up for a wet shoulder and a silly, sentimental moment over femininity.

There was a few moments of companionable silence until Jo began to pull away, feeling as though she had made up for more than her lapse. Laurie however wanted Jo close for a little longer and so asked, "don't you wish to know why and how I'm here?"

Jo stopped, her curiosity taken by the question and she nodded, prompting him to begin.

"Alright. It's Tuesday you know…"


	3. Chapter 3

Right on time the maid with the freckles and short black hair stepped out onto the back patio with her blue duster and thick skirts. Laurie counted a steady four before she bent down to discover some odd thing in one of the pots by the hedge.

"Oh really…" she spoke with distaste but pocketed the little trinket Laurie couldn't quite make out from his position, wedged between the column and the side path's bracket bush.

He leaned forward, letting his kneecaps touch the dirt ground as he strained to see just what the maid had collected but she was off and dusting furiously for some aimless point that Laurie never could discern. It was outdoors after all.

…

"She does this every Tuesday morning you see, well at least for the past two months, as far as I know." Laurie leaned back until he rested on the corner of the old couch that had been dragged up to the garret a year before he had arrived, or so Jo had divulged one winter afternoon after a particularly vicious argument with her youngest sister.

"And you have no idea?" Laurie shrugged in answer and Jo raised her eyebrows at the comfy looking lad. "Well that's hardly like the enterprising sir I know! Fancy that, young Mr. Laurence don't know what's going on under his own roof," Jo teased with a sly smile that appeared when the boy shot up from his spot.

"Hardly! I'll have you know I have quite a number of suspicions, Jo March. I just don't feel like telling you," said Laurie who had crossed his arms and turned his head in the most childish way that sixteen year old Jo laughed outright at his ridiculous manner.

"Oh come now, you wouldn't have brought it up at all if you didn't _want_ to tell me."

"Maybe it was simply a story telling device?"

"Maybe you're full of hot air."

Jo still wore a smile despite her hands fisted at her hips as she knelt in front of her neighbour who was quickly seeing the immaturity of their conversation.

"Well alright." Laurie scuttled forward, beckoning Jo to move closer as well as his face turned secretive.

"Don't be silly, there's no one else up here." Jo folded her arms predictably, refusing to move her head closer just so her adolescent friend could whisper whatever odd notion he'd conjured up for the poor maid.

Laurie gestured again, rolling his eyes when Jo stubbornly shook her head. It was just like her to be wary, thought Laurie with a slight pang of despair. "Jo, would you just do it?" he said at length.

A moment more and Jo slowly unfolded her arms and shuffled beside Laurie, a look of sour resignation on her face. The boy cupped his hand and bent beside her ear, taking a brief pause to appreciate the rare proximity to Jo before he spoke.

"The gardener's her lover."

…

Laurie stood up, brushing the specks of brown and surprising twigs his pants had collected from his hiding spot before he stepped out onto the path with a thoughtful look on his youthful features.

Whoever was leaving the maid gifts would, by logic, have no access to the house for a sensible lover might have better luck leaving something that small in the umbrella stand in the hall or behind one of the mahogany bookcases.

Laurie strode down the pebbled path, his hands folded behind his path as he mused on all the possible candidates. Truly, he could not discount the household staff for he wasn't entirely certain they were exactly 'sensible'. There had been, after all, a very specific rumour involving the cook and the baker's wife when he first came to live with Mr. Laurence.

Before he arrived at the end of the walk he bumped into the gardener, a middle-aged man who had the misfortune of losing his hair early in life despite the use of many wide-brimmed hats and sleeping caps.

Laurie smiled at the man who was notoriously romantic before passing him by, his hands now in his pockets as he moved on to the next point in his Tuesday – the Marches. The gardener muttered a distracted "Master Laurence," with a tip of his small beige hat and hurried along the path Laurie had just traveled.

The boy stopped as enlightenment hit him with the force of Jo's pitching arm on a bad day.

…

"Don't you see? It has to be him!" Laurie cried throwing his hands and standing up to pace.

"Hmm… and what happened to your theory being a secret?" Jo bit back a grin and got to her feet to join her loudly preoccupied friend who stopped when she put a hand on his arm.

"You're right," Laurie nodded to himself. "I'm sorry, Jo, I just can't believe it's taken me so long to figure it out."

Jo frowned at the boy as he put his hands in his pockets, rocking on his heels in an entirely Laurie-fashion. "Perhaps you would do best to put your time into something more productive than speculating on the business of others, Teddy. Focus on your own doings and their consequences," said Jo wisely as she returned to her spot on the ground.

"My, aren't we sagely, Miss?" Laurie walked back and sat directly in front of Jo who was toying with a much loved hem. "Tell me then, for I know there's a reason you chose those words and I shan't be right 'til you've petted and perfected me. Come on, let's have it out."

"I wish," Jo begun only to stop herself before she spilt out the hopeful desires she entertained for her boy. He will think it silly and laugh and then pay even less attention to his character, she thought, choosing to pick at the cushion's tassel by her elbow.

"Go on," he urged, honestly wondering just how she saw him. He wasn't a saint and was quite comfortable with that, especially when Jo told him so on different occasions. Mostly that happened when she had been part of the mischief that labeled him as such.

"Well, you're…" She looked up and cringed at her mistake. She certainly couldn't tell him if he watched her like that. He had shuffled a little closer and was looking up at her with wide-eyes that were evidently not ready for her harsh judgments and admonitions. "Oh Laurie," she moved her fidgeting hand to his hair and ran her fingers through his mop a little. "It doesn't matter. Honest."

"If you're sure," he said quietly, taking her hand in his rather large one and running his thumb over it in what Jo found the most distracting manner. "You'll tell me when I'm ready, I'm sure of it." His voice held the tiniest particle of disappointment and Jo knew then that he might never be ready to hear her out. Especially if his expression and the grip he had on her hand was anything to go by, Jo might never speak to him of love and his unwanted attentions. Her eyes fell heavy when his thumb stroked the skin between her fingers and she wondered, just for a brief moment, if they really were unwanted.

"My boy, you've told me everything I've needed to hear today. I'm sure I'll do the same, Teddy. When it's right." Jo told him, more hesitant than she would have liked and the bright smile Laurie returned made her cautious heart fill with a little more doubt.

"I'm sure."


End file.
